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Like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning? Then watch these action movies on Netflix

Guillermo Kurten
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Tom Cruise has been storming the Hollywood blockbuster scene as of late, and his latest hit is Paramount Pictures and director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. McQuarrie has a fantastic eye for action thrillers, making it easy to get lost in high-stakes fight scenes or massive set pieces, and Netflix has a respectable catalogue of similar films that are every bit as good.

The streamer is still one of the leaders in the crowded TV and movie streaming market, with plenty of action movies to satiate viewers’ hunger for thrills. From the British equivalent of the Mission: Impossible franchise in the form of the James Bond movies to original productions like Extraction, Netflix has a few movies that are more than worth watching after you check out Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

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Skyfall (2012)

Two men fight on the top of a train in Skyfall.
MGM/UA

Adapted from British author Ian Fleming’s series of James Bond novels, the film adaptations have gone through a series of reboots, and Daniel Craig has made a strong impression in the modern era. Directors Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale is a superb start and Cary Joji Fukunaga’s No Time to Die is a satisfying close to this iteration of Bond, but Sam Mendes’ Skyfall arguably stands as Craig’s greatest showing as the spy.

Skyfall sees the elite MI6 agent sent to investigate a chilling series of data leaks by the villainous Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) that target the British intelligence organization. It’s a riveting action-thriller, combining tense fight sequences and the James Bond series’ vintage brand of kooky gadgets and striking set pieces. The movie also has an engrossing emotional core, intertwining the character arcs of Bond, M (Judi Dench), and the chilling villain himself to craft a deeply intimate affair.

Extraction 2 (2023)

Chris Hemsworth protects a woman from two men in Extraction 2.
Extraction 2. (L to R) Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake and Tinatin Dalakishvili as Ketevan in Extraction 2. Cr. Jasin Boland/Netflix © 2023

Though on a comparatively smaller scale — and certainly more violent — than the Mission: Impossible movies, director Sam Hargrave’s Extraction 2 is another over-the-top action movie worth getting into. It’s the filmmaker’s second feature-length film in the director’s chair following 2020’s Extraction, and it builds upon the original’s strengths and shores up some of its weaker areas.

The film follows Marvel Cinematic Universe star Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Love and Thunder, Avengers: Endgame) as Tyler Rake, a former Australian SAS operator now plying his trade as a black ops mercenary. Rake is hired to rescue the wife and children of a brutal, abusive criminal kingpin and soon finds himself having to protect the family from the crime syndicate itself. With a more interesting story and a doubling down on the thrilling action, Extraction 2 is a welcome sequel. A third movie is already in the works at Netflix, with Hargrave and Hemsworth returning to direct and star, respectively.

Clear and Present Danger (1994)

Two men wait for battle in Clear and Present Danger.
Paramount

Actor Harrison Ford (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Blade Runner) is another titan of Hollywood whose latest film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is currently in theaters. And while not quite as well-known as his other characters, his portrayal of Jack Ryan, especially in 1994’s Clear and Present Danger, is quite solid. Adapted from author Tom Clancy’s novel of the same name, which was a sequel to The Hunt for Red October, director Phillip Noyce’s movie centers around Ford’s CIA agent.

Ryan gets appointed as the acting deputy director of the CIA, only to discover that his colleagues are keeping a dark conspiratorial secret from him. The latter group is taking part in a shadow war against a Colombian drug cartel — with the U.S. President’s apparent consent. Noyce’s Clear and Present Danger revels in its thriller plot tropes and bombastic action, with Ford doing an expectedly great job of spearheading the story.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One is now playing in theaters, with the second part of the story arriving on June 28, 2024.

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Guillermo Kurten
Guillermo Kurten
Freelance Writer, Entertainment
A University of Houston graduate in Print Media Journalism, Guillermo has covered sports entertainment and practically all…
The 7 best Tom Cruise action movies, ranked
Tom Cruise holds onto a cargo plane in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

Very few movie stars have been at the center of more well-regarded action movies than Tom Cruise. It’s not hard to see why, either. Over the course of his career, Cruise has developed an obsessive devotion to practical action sequences, the kind that make audiences gasp and cheer when they’re brought to life on the big screen. His desire to wow and thrill has resulted in him putting himself in some serious danger over the years. It’s also led to some of the greatest action movies ever made.

With Cruise’s latest film, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, hitting theaters this week, now seems like as good a time as any to look back at his career and celebrate some of his biggest achievements. So, without any further ado, here are the seven best action movies that Tom Cruise has ever starred in. (Dead Reckoning Part One notwithstanding.)
7. Minority Report (2002)

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The best action scenes in the Mission: Impossible movies, ranked
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Since it first arrived on the big screen in 1996, the Mission: Impossible film franchise has thrilled audiences with increasingly ambitious practical stunts. Star and producer Tom Cruise won’t be satisfied until he’s shown gravity who’s boss once and for all, diving off of increasingly high platforms at increasingly deadly speeds. The daredevil feats have become such essential parts of the Mission: Impossible films and their marketing that one could almost forget the stories that these stunts are meant to service.
In most M: I movies, at least one of those miraculous action set pieces is attached to some sort of heist or caper. Ethan Hunt is a spy, after all, and his quests typically require that he infiltrate a highly secure location and intercept an important item, person, or piece of information. With respect to the remarkable craft put into each of the daredevil actions, how often is the payoff equal to the setup? Is there a correlation between the magnitude of the danger to Tom Cruise and the stakes to Ethan Hunt? On the occasion of Dead Reckoning Part One’s theatrical release, we’re ranking the action scenes in the Mission: Impossible series and our preferences might surprise you.

7. Stealing the Rabbit’s Foot (Mission: Impossible III)
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Mission: Impossible III gets a bit of a bad rap for its efforts to ground the series in something approaching reality, and it can definitely be argued that director J.J. Abrams’ more TV-style aesthetic was an overcorrection from John Woo’s unrestrained bombast. We’ll stand behind M:I-3’s more human and emotional characterization of Ethan Hunt, the romance subplot, and of course, the outstanding performance of Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the villain, but we do have to admit that the choice to essentially skip this movie’s main heist sequence is pretty disappointing.
In the second act of M:I-3, Ethan’s wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) has been kidnapped by terrorist Owen Davian (Hoffman), who promises to kill her unless Hunt retrieves the mysterious “Rabbit’s Foot” weapon from a secure facility in Shanghai. Hunt goes rogue and, with the help of his team, plans a daring swing between two skyscrapers, using a third, taller building as a fulcrum.
However, while we see Ethan’s leap and his tricky landing on the roof of the facility, we don’t follow him inside for the rest of the heist. Instead, we remain with his teammates Zhen (Maggie Q) and Gorley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) as they wait to hear whether or not he’s acquired the Rabbits Foot. We only catch up with Ethan once the mission has gone sideways, and Zhen, Gorley, and trusty tech wizard Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) participate in a wild, shaky-cam car chase away from the building’s facility. It’s a cute subversion of the franchise’s usual structure and it allows the plot to continue at an even clip, but for the purposes of this list, we can’t put it anywhere but dead last.

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Is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 streaming?
Tom Cruise looks and stares in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

It's been five years since the release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, but the latest film in the series has finally arrived. Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have reunited for the new sequel, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1, and this is a story that has finally given Ethan Hunt (Cruise) a foe that he can't easily dispatch. The Entity is something that Ethan has never had to contend with before, and it will push him and his team to their limits.

Mission: Impossible regulars Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson are all back as Luther Stickell, Benji Dunn, and Ilsa Faust, respectively. Vanessa Kirby also reprises her role from Fallout as the White Widow, Alanna Mitsopolis. And for the first time since the original Mission: Impossible film in 1996, Henry Czerny has returned as IMF director Eugene Kittridge.

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